Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

A $1,000 Day in Paris for $100

A concierge’s idea of the perfect day on the town in Paris, but at a tenth of the price.

Photo

The leafy and regal Place des Vosges.
Credit
Alex Cretey-Systermans for The New York Times

As a concierge at the elegant Pavillon de la Reine hotel in Paris, Arnaud Ilisca dresses in tails. His manner is elegant yet personable; his advice comes in flawless English with just enough of a French accent to lend legitimacy. On any given day, he can arrange a private cruise on the Seine or land a difficult reservation at a three-star Michelin restaurant. In other words, he is the kind of person I never run into in my frugal travels.

But there we sat, on a recent Thursday afternoon, in the Pavillon’s bar in a building off the Place des Vosges that was once a royal residence. Mr. Ilisca was formulating a perfect Paris day for a fictional well-heeled guest. Cost: about 1,000 euros (or a little more than $1,100). I was sipping espresso, taking notes for the task ahead — creating the most similar day I could for one-tenth of the price.

I commenced a deep dive into the online rabbit hole of Paris blogs and personal advice from Paris-based friends and colleagues (including Seth Sherwood and Pamela Druckerman, contributors to The New York Times, and Meg Zimbeck, the founder of the blog Paris by Mouth). I made one tweak to Mr. Ilisca’s itinerary: He had suggested an à la carte lunch and prix fixe dinner; I flipped those, since prix fixe lunch can be an excellent deal in Paris. And then I was off.

Photo

Blé Sucré is a patisserie run by Fabrice Le Bourdat, the former pastry chef at the three-star Michelin restaurant now called Epicure.
Credit
Alex Cretey-Systermans for The New York Times

Breakfast

High

The prix fixe petit déjeuner at Carette, a fancy patisserie with tables nestled beneath the arches that skirt the Place des Vosges, is 18.50 euros, or $20.64 at $1.12 to the euro.

Low

I traded in the regal Place des Vosges for a sidewalk table across from the leafy Square Trousseau, the perfect spot to watch the 12th Arrondissement awaken. I was at Blé Sucré, a patisserie with a deceptively everyday look; it is run by Fabrice Le Bourdat, the former pastry chef at Le Bristol, the three-star Michelin restaurant that is now called Epicure. Along with my espresso, I had a kouign-amann, a caramelized cross between a palmier and a croissant that comes from Bretagne and has been positively compared with the Cronut. Blé Sucré’s decadent version costs just 1.76 euros.

With an espresso, my breakfast was 3.26 euros, but I did miss the glass of fresh juice I knew was in the Carette prix fixe. Luckily, an elegantly dressed older woman eating alone at another table had been humoring my rusty French and directed me to the nearby Aligre Market, where the gorgeous produce made me wish for a kitchen. (I settled for an Instagram post.) A juicy orange was 65 cents.

Photo

Aligre Market, where books are among the finds to be had.
Credit
Alex Cretey-Systermans for The New York Times

My first thought was the gargantuan Les Puces flea market at faraway Porte de Clignancourt, but a great web page directed me to smaller, more occasional markets by arrondissement. (Find the list at bit.ly/ParisFlea.) In fact, my shopping started after I finished my Aligre Market orange, at the flea market adjacent to the produce stands. For 1 euro, I bought a yellowed 1951 issue of Temps Modernes, the journal edited by Jean-Paul Sartre. (It listed a piece called “Is God Photogenic?,” and I had to know. It turned out that the article was actually about the state of religious films at the time; the headline was clearly a clever ploy aimed at American tourists 64 years in the future.) Three markets later, at Village St.-Paul, I’d fall for a small, lovely powder-blue wall-mounted coat rack. I bargained it down to 22 euros from 28 by claiming to be a “pauvre Américain.” (They didn’t believe me, but it got the conversation started.)

Photo

Le Timbre, known for its three-course lunch.
Credit
Alex Cretey-Systermans for The New York Times

Lunch

High

L’Arpège has three Michelin stars and a No. 25 spot on Restaurant magazine’s world rankings. Its chef, Alain Passard, is famous for his farm-to-obsessed-chef-to-table ingredients, especially vegetables. Tasting menu (remember, this was supposed to be dinner): 340 euros.

Low

I tried, really I did, to find a reasonably priced prix fixe at a contemporary, cool and vegetarian-friendly spot. No luck — vegetarians, beware. But a blog post about farm-to-table spots I had found during a search for L’Arpège also raved about Le Timbre, where Charles Danet’s three-course lunch fit the bill, literally, for 26 euros. That’s in part because everyone eats the exact same thing in this pleasantly cramped space the size of a postage stamp, which is what “timbre” means.

Seth joined me, and as the last lunch guests to arrive, we got a step-by-step preview of our meal from those seated (very) nearby. It turned out to be false advertising — the kitchen ran out of both the starter (hake) and the main course (duck filet). “On a mal compté le canard,” our very apologetic server said. But we enjoyed the cod starter substitute (as if I could tell the flaky, white difference), served with puréed celery root and lovage, and were impressed at how crunchy pine nuts and spicy bits of chorizo took to a moist cut of guinea fowl. When everyone started getting gorgeous dollops of chocolate mousse around us, I impishly asked, “On a mal compté le chocolat?” They had not. It was delicious. My share of the bill: 29 euros.

Photo

The Hôtel de Sully in the Marais area of Paris.
Credit
Alex Cretey-Systermans for The New York Times

Afternoon Stroll

High

Mr. Ilisca’s guests often request a personal tour of the cobblestone streets of the shopping and art-packed Marais. Cost: 240 euros.

Low

There are reasonably priced walking tours of the Marais, but I opted out of being part of a group clogging its already tourist-packed streets. Instead, I simply downloaded a very helpful self-guided version at Paris48.com, and ended up at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, a gorgeously bright space where I got absorbed in the dreamily textured works of the Spanish painter Miquel Barceló. Free.

Photo

Le Bistrot du Peintre, with its Art Nouveau details.
Credit
Alex Cretey-Systermans for The New York Times

Seth may not wear tails, but he was right on in taking me to Le Bistrot du Peintre, near his home in the Bastille. If it hadn’t been around since 1902, I’d say the Art Nouveau décor was overdone. Everything is dreamily wavy, from the massive wood mirrors to the vines painted along the tops of the walls, even the precariously twisting stairs that lead to the kitchen. For dinner, we split a 17-euro bottle of fruity 2013 Gamay from the Loire Valley, and a very generous bone-marrow starter. To make up for my duck-less lunch, I had the duck breast, seared in an oil-free pan, baked and served with raspberry sauce; Seth had a tender braised paleron of beef, loaded with tomatoes and olives, Mediterranean style. My half of the bill was 32.50 euros.

Nightcap

High

Where else would a concierge send a classy guy like our stand-in jet-setter but the Hôtel Costes, the ultrachic hotel lounge where a cocktail runs you north of 15 euros.

Low

Hotel + bar = cheap? In travel-writer math class, that’s what we call a false equation. So why does the lively young crowd at Hôtel du Nord pay just 5 euros to drink a glass of Bordeaux along the Canal St.-Martin? Answer: Because it’s not actually a hotel, but a restaurant named after a 1938 film. Did I mention the 5-euro wine?